My Recharge

China's Envision buys Nissan battery business

Chinese wind group and 'intelligent energy' innovator ramps up in storage via deal with automotive giant

Chinese wind group and ‘intelligent energy’ innovator Envision has signed a deal to buy the lithium-ion battery business of Japanese automotive giant Nissan, significantly boosting its footprint in the global storage sector.

Under the terms of the deal, Envision will acquire Nissan’s subsidiary Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) and the Japanese group’s battery production facilities in Tennessee in the US and Sunderland, northeast England.

Battery engineering facilities in Japan are also part of the agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Envision CEO Lei Zhang said: “Together with the battery business management team and its highly skilled workforce, this partnership will see Envision expand both organisations’ footprints into the intelligent energy ecosystem to create new innovative solutions for the IoT value chain.

“With this strategic acquisition and collaboration, we aim to expand our activities via investment into the new company to realise the value of IoT technology for smart transportation, V2G [vehicle-to-grid], and smart city solutions.”

Envision will commence the acquisition by buying the 49% of AESC held by Japan’s NEC. Nissan will retain a 25% share in a new corporate entity formed by Envision to house the battery assets.

As well as carving out a significant position in the Chinese and global wind sector – Envision was China’s number-two supplier in 2017 according to figures from consultants MAKE – the company has emerged as an ambitious player in the energy transition, in areas including digital technologies and storage.

Nissan said the deal will allow it to focus on developing electric vehicles. “We are confident that Envision will be a strong, long-term owner of the new company and that it will further grow as a battery company with increased competitiveness.”

24/7 of depth and dimension on the stories that matter most to the renewables sectors

Log in or subscribe to read this article

China's Envision buys Nissan battery business

China's Envision buys Nissan battery business

Chinese wind group and 'intelligent energy' innovator ramps up in storage via deal with automotive giant

Chinese wind group and ‘intelligent energy’ innovator Envision has signed a deal to buy the lithium-ion battery business of Japanese automotive giant Nissan, significantly boosting its footprint in the global storage sector.

Under the terms of the deal, Envision will acquire Nissan’s subsidiary Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) and the Japanese group’s battery production facilities in Tennessee in the US and Sunderland, northeast England.

Battery engineering facilities in Japan are also part of the agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Envision CEO Lei Zhang said: “Together with the battery business management team and its highly skilled workforce, this partnership will see Envision expand both organisations’ footprints into the intelligent energy ecosystem to create new innovative solutions for the IoT value chain.

“With this strategic acquisition and collaboration, we aim to expand our activities via investment into the new company to realise the value of IoT technology for smart transportation, V2G [vehicle-to-grid], and smart city solutions.”

Envision will commence the acquisition by buying the 49% of AESC held by Japan’s NEC. Nissan will retain a 25% share in a new corporate entity formed by Envision to house the battery assets.

As well as carving out a significant position in the Chinese and global wind sector – Envision was China’s number-two supplier in 2017 according to figures from consultants MAKE – the company has emerged as an ambitious player in the energy transition, in areas including digital technologies and storage.

Nissan said the deal will allow it to focus on developing electric vehicles. “We are confident that Envision will be a strong, long-term owner of the new company and that it will further grow as a battery company with increased competitiveness.”

Recharge 10 Years

Full digital access

First month - 10€ only

Other subscription offers

Corporate Subscriptions

Print + Digital

NHST Global Publications AS use technologies such as cookies and other tracking scripts to analyse trends, administer our services, track user movements and to gather information about our whole user base. Unregistered users may opt-out of such tracking in the browser settings by ticking off “do not track me”. Read our cookie policy here.